Posted on 02/23/2021 6:48:44 AM PST by mylife
As much as people try to wedge a definition for “Pittsburgh pizza,” the truth of it is that we don’t have a signature city style.
There are a handful of pizzerias that often come up in conversations about Pittsburgh pizza. However, with due respect to long-standing establishments such as Aiello’s, Mineo’s and Fiori’s, what they deliver is typical of the mid-century coast-to-coast boom of the American gas-oven pie, which has a slightly thicker crust and, often, a sweeter sauce than you’d find in the legacy New York City deck-oven pie-and-slice joints from which that style was derived.
What’s endearing about our region is how idiosyncratic pizza makers have over the past 75 years put their spin on what it means to make a pizza. There are sundry pizza styles within an hour’s drive of Pittsburgh, each with a story.
Our pizza foundations were built in the 1940s and continued to blossom through the 1970s, the four decades that represent the heyday of widespread commercial regionalization of pizza in the United States. (Prior to that, establishments that sold pizza were almost exclusively limited to what food writer Ed Levine calls “The Pizza Belt,” which was centered in New York City and New Haven, and tendriled as far as Boston and Philadelphia.)
The migration of regional Italian foodways — and how newly arrived immigrants strove to feed a lot of people on a budget — set the framework. The return of GIs stationed in Italy during World War II, many of whom (particularly those with roots in the country) were smitten with the pizza sold in bakeries, spurred the boom, as did mid-century innovations in technology, especially the gas-heated deck ovens popularized by Bakers Pride and Mastro.
(Excerpt) Read more at pittsburghmagazine.com ...
Have never had pizza in da Burgh. Will check out.
Dey got fried mortadella nd provolone cheese sangwiches in brazil too.
Yummo
Oddly, Panama has huge china towns, but it makes sense WTF do ya think built the canal?
Yep, they brought in Chinese and West Indian black folk, including Rod Carew’s family.
They do, and their Little Italy (Bella Vista/Bexiga) is better than Manhattan’s. Brazil has the largest population of people of Italian ancestry outside of Italy, most of whom live in the south of the country.
The worst pizza I ever ate was in Pittsburgh. It wasn’t from any of these named joints, just some local shop, so maybe I didn’t give the town a fair shake. But I’ve never found anywhere on the East Coast outside of NYC to really have very good pizza at all.
That was true
No doubt
When I was a boy in the 60s we had a couple places in Jackson Mississippi where you could order a pizza. One was Italian ....Grecos
The other was Angelou’s ....Greek obviously
Then came Shakeys first which black beer and bands
Then Pasquales and Pizza Hut and Pizza Inn etc
Now few places don’t have decent pie usually owned by someone from Jersey
And all manner of bubble crusted old world style pies which I admit I like as well as New York slices at times...
The thing about NYC pie is the taste ....something there just comes together just right ....everywhere you look decent pizza
Nashville has three Jersey operated pizza people
They are the best for NYC style dripping slices
I also like Chicago on occasion but it’s very heavy
St. Louis ....has an unusual pie made with Provel cheese.....a mix of white cheddar Swiss and provolone
I stopped at Lombardos years ago.....it’s an acquired taste that cheese....on pizza...on ham and cheese or a corned beef better or a burger maybe
I personally do not care for the sweet sauce, but we have to take her there every time she visits. A little Tabasco on my slices covers up the too sweet sauce . . . and the perogies are good!
As I said, Pitt has a lot of local joints... And some are very unique...but none of them are “great” in terms of their product.
Everyone is entitled to their opinion regarding taste.
There are literally thousands of pizza joints in the Pitt - W PA area, and some maybe great, and some maybe just "unique".
Ping!
The best Chicago-style pizza I ever ate came from a little family run place just a couple of blocks from the river in Coraopolis. It might have changed ownership since then but IIRC it had been run by the same sisters (and in the same location) for more than a half century. The pizza had such a reputation that commercial airline crews flying into Pittsburgh (with at least a 2-hour lay-over) would post a note on their home crew room’s bulletin board that they were collecting money for a 4th Ave Pizzeria run. They’d call them in ahead of time but order them only half-baked. Then once they’d arrived one of the crew members would drive the six miles to Coraopolis to pick up them up.
But that was before 9/11. These days you might have a difficult time explaining to TSA why you had 20 half-baked pizzas that you wanted loaded in the cargo bay.
Pennsylvania Ping!
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Any discussion of Pittsburgh Pizza that does not mention Vinnie’s (God rest his flour covered soul) or the places that carry on the family tradition (Conforti’s, Shelly’s Pie) is seriously lacking.
Interesting stuff!
Further afield in Youngstown, volunteers at St. Anthony of Padua Church popularized the Briar Hill pie, a round, pan pie ladled with long-cooked sauce, and topped with peppers and a smattering of Romano cheese. That pizza, with roots in the southern Italian region of Basilicata and the immigrant kitchens of Youngstown’s Briar Hill neighborhood, is still served once a week at the church (be sure to call ahead to order) as well as a few pizzerias in the area.
Really? I tried pizza in NYC but it was not very good. Gave it to a subway rat but he turned his nose up at it too. Guy from Jersey picked it up off the ground and ate it though. I’ve never found anywhere on the East Coast outside of CT to really have very good pizza at all.
Mortadella, right? I got to live into my 40’s before I found out. Thought it was just bologna (well, it is the original bologna). Tried some on a cruise ship, and I got hooked. I get authentic Italian mortadella at a deli in Seattle. The only reason I’ve ventured there in the past few years.
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